SUMMER GAMES II ARTICLES

March 17, 2009 - For the first three Commodore 64 titles to come to the American Virtual Console, play control was an issue -- but not a dealbreaker. The clumsy tire-swapping mechanic in Pitstop II, the unintuitive martial arts maneuvers in International Karate and the stiff, frustrating jumping commands of The Last Ninja all merited negative mention in the reviews of each of those three C64 games in their VC debuts, but ultimately other positives outweighed those drawbacks in all three cases.

August 12, 2008 - There are a few genres gamers go into with skepticism -- especially Olympics-themed videogames. So many games based on the quadrennial sporting event are dull timing games almost devoid of the personality that makes watching the real thing so engaging. Each athlete has a story. Some are inspiring. Some draw sympathy. Others scorn. But no matter what, there is real drama at the Olympics and its absence from most home games really injures them. All you're left with is a button-timing game starring flag-encrusted mannequins.